How to Get Grass Green and Healthy

Every homeowner’s dream is a lush, manicured lawn. Some gardener can grow the bright green turf. However, for some reasons, that turf suddenly changes color.

The problem is not everyone knows how to maintain a healthy lawn. Due to improper lawn care, the grass can quickly lose its fresh appearance. To avoid this, we’ve come up with a simple guide on how to get grass green and healthy to the lost souls out there.

Adjust the Cutting Height of Your Lawn Mower

First of all, you must learn to adjust the cutting height of your lawnmower from a hard surface. This will allow you to precisely measure the distance from the ground to the bottom of the cutting deck. In addition, you need to add 0.25 inches to this measurement since most blades are located 0.25 inches from the bottom of the deck.

If you have cool-season grass varieties such as perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass, the cutting height during the first mowing operation must range from half an inch to an inch. This height will get rid of dead grass while also providing more sunlight to the crows of your grass.

Once the summer heat arrives, the cutting height should be at least two inches. When it gets cooler again during the last months of the year, it should revert back to half an inch or one inch. If you have warm-season grasses such as Bermuda grass and centipede grass, you should follow the same adjustment pattern but the minimum height is around half an inch lower compared to cool-season grasses.

Tip: A commercial-grade ﻿lawn mower is more expensive than a low-capacity model, but its sheer efficiency in covering wide areas regardless of grass variety and terrain more than justifies the cost.​

Sharpen the Mower Blade

Apart from adjusting the cutting height, you also need to keep the mower blades sharp at all times. You should sharpen them at least three times every year. If the blades come in contact with rocks and other tough obstacles often, they must be sharpened more frequently.

When the blades are dull, you cannot achieve clean and even cuts. If your grass is damaged by dull blades, it can suffer discoloration. Apart from becoming yellow, your grass will become prone to plant disease. Moreover, you would need to provide an additional amount of water and fertilizer to help the damaged grass recover.

Cover the Bald Spots Well

Even when most of your lawn has healthy green grass, a small bare section is unsightly. Moreover, this area can be invaded by weeds that harbor plant diseases and steal nutrients from your grass. When you spot a bald spot in your lawn, you must cover it by planting new grass seeds. Before planting them, however, you need to mow the lawn so that the older grasses won’t stop the seedlings from receiving enough sunlight.

Also, you need to collect any grass clippings and aerate the lawn. Moreover, adding the starter fertilizer will accelerate the growth of new grass in the bare spots. And you can collect them easily with a lawn sweeper.

Once you’ve assessed the size of the bald spot in your lawn, you should seek assistance at your local gardening supply store to get the right amount and your preferred grass variety.

To ensure that the new grass will grow green and healthy, you should spread the seeds evenly. In addition, the area must be raked so that the seeds do not get stuck on the grass blades. You need them to be on the ground to stimulate germination. Furthermore, you need to them moist by watering at least once a day.

Here is a video about managing bare spots in one’s lawn:

Utilize the Grass Clippings

After mowing the lawn, you should use the grass clippings instead of throwing them away. All you have to do is let a good amount of them remain on your lawn. Lawn clippings undergo the decomposition process rather quickly, which makes them a quick source of nutrients for the soil.

Apart from keeping your soil healthy, soil texture is also improved. In addition, these lawn clippings will serve as mulch for your grass and help them sustain moisture.

Practice Deep Watering

Instead of merely providing your lawn sprinklers of water several a times a day, you should water less frequently but deeply. Lightly watering the soil will only reach the soil surface and stimulate the root system to grow in shallow sections. When you water deeply, the water goes down lower in the soil. Thus, the root systems are encouraged to establish themselves deep in the soil.

Your lawn needs between one to two inches of water every week, and you should irrigate every three or four days. However, this is the general rule. The frequency and amount will vary due to various factors such as grass type, soil quality, and the temperature. Thus, it’s best to ask help from your local garden center to avoid overwatering.

Overall, there are a lot of ways to improve the condition of your grass. Apart from adjusting the cutting height of your mower, you must also sharpen the blades. Likewise, deep watering, using grass clippings, and covering the bald spots will all help in keeping the lawn grass green and healthy.

If you have any questions regarding our guide, feel free to give us a comment.

I'm Ann, I have dedicated most of my life in gardening. This is a subject I enjoy the most. Since then, I committed to developing my website to be the best guidance when it comes to taking care of flowers and plants. I am trying my best to be well-versed with plants found in desert areas, tropics or Mediterranean. I still need to be knowledgeable about so many kinds of botanical life.

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